A Jaipur court dismisses the Bhanwari Devi rape case and clears the accused of charges, in a verdict that jolts women's groups and forces the victim into what she calls a "lifetime of stigma".

When she went to Beijing for the UN Women's Conference in September, she was the Indian women activists' model victim: a backward-caste village woman allegedly gangraped by wealthy villagers because she dared defy them. But last fortnight, back in her village of Bhateri in Rajaslhan, 4 3-year-old Bhanwari Devi began what she calls a "lifetime of stigma". Three years after she filed a rape complaint with the police, the district and sessions court in Jaipur dismissed her case and acquitted all the five accused.

Women's groups were shocked. Bhanwari was a backward-caste sathin (a voluntary worker) in Rajasthan's much-touted Women's Development Project (WOP), a state-sponsored scheme meant to empower rural women and help them participate in development. Her job was to prevent child marriages.

So when she said she was raped by those whom she had reported - a rich family belonging to the dominant Gujjar caste - her story became a powerful symbol of the exploitation of women in a feudal society. The verdict of November 15, however, came as a rude shock to women activists. It hurt all the more since Bhanwari's case had been transferred first from the local police to the state CII), and then, under pressure from women's groups, to the CBI.

Bhanwari says the verdict has not only lowered her credibility in the village, it is also patently unjust since it suggests that she lied about the rape. 'All I did was carry out my job." she says. "And now I have been denied justice." Says Renuka Pamecha, one of the several women activists in Jaipur who have been fighting for Bhanwari's cause: "In every sense, we are really back where we started." The verdict, says Pamecha, will discourage the entire sathin community, numbering about 600 in the state.

In March this year, the newly elected sarpanches of Bassi tehsil, in which Bhanwari's village falls, got together to threaten sathins during one of their meetings. "The verdict has only made them bolder, they are circling us like a pack of wolves." says Kailashi Bai, a sathin in Bassi. It was Bhanwari's alleged rape that prompted five women's organisations, including the Delhi-based Sakshi and Jagori, to file a petition in the Supreme Court last year asking for protection of women government employees.

Citing Bhanwari's case, they argued that if the Government employs women. it has a duty to protect them. The Court asked for specific guidelines, which the petitioners submitted. Now the Centre's response is awaited. But the fear, say women activists, is that the recent district-court judgement could very well be used by the state Government to counter the basis of that petition.

The Bhanwari case may have resulted in increasing awareness, but it also underscored what Jaipur-based activist Kavita Srivastava calls "the essential dilemma": the difference in perception of a sathin's role. While many women saw Bhanwari as a woman trying to change deep-seated structures in a rigid class- and caste-ridden society, the Government saw her as someone who could help it achieve targets. "This is the gap that we failed to bridge." says Srivastava.

For her part, WDP Director Sarita Singh says that her department is committed to looking after the sathins. Admitting that she doesn't agree with the verdict, Singh says she has suggested to the Government that it file a review petition and has asked the district collector to provide security whenever Bhanwari asks for it. "We are all behind her and support her." she says.

The verdict, women's groups Say is symptomatic of the same gender bias Bhanwari is trying to fight.

This has done little, though, to deflect the spirited campaign against the verdict. In fact, women's groups charge that the judgement itself is symptomatic of the deep-rooted gender bias that Bhanwari is fighting. They find little basis to doubt her claim that she was raped.

According to Bhanwari's statement, she was gangraped on t he evening of September 22, 1992. She and husband Mohan were attacked in a field by five men - Ram Sukh Gujjar, Ram Karan Gujjar, Gyarsa Gujjar (all brothers ) and their uncle Badri Gujjar, along with one Shravan Sharma. Bhanwari claims that Ram Sukh held her while Badri and Gyarsa took turns in raping her. The rape, she says, occurred shortly after she stopped Ram Karan from getting his one-year-old daughter married off-on the state administration's orders.

Dismissing these charges, the judgement emphasises the point that the FIR was not "immediately filed" and that she did not tell anybody else in the village. "Why can't anybody understand that maybe she was too ashamed and shocked to tell anybody until morning?" says a sathin close to Bhanwari. This is just one of what women activists call several "glaring holes" in the judgement. Says Supreme Court lawyer Kirti Singh: "In a way, this judgement symbolises all the biases that we have faced in rape cases."

Counsel for the accused, Hari Mohan Wali, disagrees, however. According to him, Bhanwari's statements were full of contradictions that were exposed during cross-examination. He claims the rape complaint was a blatant attempt to malign his clients. "And look what it has done. Even after winning the verdict, my clients are still scared that she will start another campaign against them," he says. Wali calls the judgement "bold and courageous", given the considerable pressure from women's organisations.

Meanwhile, women activists all over the country are preparing to launch a concerted campaign against the verdict. And help is pouring in from unexpected quarters. For instance, the Akhil Bharatiya Kumhar Sabha-Bhanwari is a Kumhar - has decided to back her, and a huge jan adalat (people's court) is scheduled to be held in Jaipur on December 15. Letters have been sent to the chief justice of the Supreme Court. "Since the day I was raped. I have lost all my options," says Bhanwari. "The only way ahead is to fight."